Tough task ahead for Sampras

PARIS, May 24: World no 1 Pete Sampras, who launches his eighth campaign for the only major title missing from his collection at the French...

PARIS, May 24: World no 1 Pete Sampras, who launches his eighth campaign for the only major title missing from his collection at the French Open next week, was done no favours by former women’s champion Francoise Durr yesterday.

Durr, who won the women’s singles in 1967 and who was invited to officiate at the draw to mark the women’s centenary tournament, drew compatriot Fabrice Santoro out of the hat as Sampras’ first-round opponent.

Santoro, 24, a former Davis Cup player who slumped badly after reaching 24th in the rankings four years ago, has shot back up to the 57th this season after enjoying an unexpected revival of fortunes.

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A semi-finalist at both the Monte Carlo Open and at Prague where he chalked up shock wins over top players like Thomas Muster, Sergi Bruguera and Marcelo Rios — Santoro will be a difficult first-round test for the 25-year-old American.

If Sampras beats Santoro, he will probably face Spain’s slow-court specialist Francisco Clavet who has to play a qualifier. And he would probably face another major hurdle in the fourth-round where he is expected to face either either fifteenth-seeded Marc Rosset of Switzerland or up-and-coming Dominik Hrbaty of Slovakia in the fourth-round.

Unless there are early upsets, Sampras’ quarter-final opponent should be last weekend’s Italian Open champion eighth seed Alex Corretja of Spain.

In Sampras’ half of the draw, fifth-seeded Thomas Muster, who has been struggling to regain his confidence after winning only three matches in his last four tournaments, begins his bid to repeat his 1995 title triumph when he faces Marc-Kevin Goelner. He is later expected to meet either 1994 runner-up Alberto Berasategui of Spain or dangerous floater Andrei Medvedev of the Ukraine.

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The 12th-seeded Berasategui, best known for his unorthodox forehand, and Medvedev, impressive winner in Hamburg, clash in what looks like being the toughest of the first-round matches.

Scheduled to play Muster in the quarter-finals, the defending champion Russia’s Yevgeny Kafelnikov, who opens against Martin Damm of the the Netherlands, has Britain’s 14th-seeded Tim Henman, big-hitting Mark Philippoussis of Australia and Frenchman Cedric Pioline in his portion of the draw.

In the other half of the draw, on paper at least, the 1989 champion Michael Chang looks to have the easiest passage through to a probable fourth-round clash against Sergi Bruguera.

The second-seeded Chinese-American opens against a qualifier and then faces the winner of an all-French clash between Jerome Golmaud and Arnaud Clement. Chang is in line to play the Monte Carlo Open champion and Italian Open finalist Marcelo Rios of Chile in the quarter-finals.

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The 21-year-old seventh-seeded South American left-hander shouldn’t have too many problems until the fourth-round. There he could face the 1991 and 1992 champion Jim Courier, provided the American survives a tough first-round against Magnus Larsson of Sweden.